Bitcoin’s price has broken $8,700 to reach its highest value in over a year – but that’s nothing compared to the price growth enjoyed by popular alternative cryptocurrencies like Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Even controversial cryptocurrency Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BitcoinSV) pumped more than 60 percent last week, but boutique analysis firm Delphi Digital reports it’s still one of the worst performers year-to-date.
“Historically higher beta names like LTC and BCH outperformed, as some alternative crypto assets played a bit of catch up to Bitcoin,” reads Delphi Digital’s latest market commentary. “Return dispersion was a bit more widespread, while a few of last week’s winners (NEM, XLM, ADA) ended last week in negative territory.”
Indeed, cryptocurrencies with the largest market capitalizations have performed the best. If you bought Bitcoin (BTC) in January and held until now, you could have doubled your money (at least).
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Consider BNB, though, which increased in value by more than 30 percent last week. So far in 2019, its value has risen dramatically by almost 450 percent.
Sadly, the same can’t be said for Ripple (XRP), the third largest digital asset by market cap, which has recorded only a 9-percent jump in price (based on data up to May 24).
BitcoinSV has also posted pretty measly returns, having increased roughly 16 percent in 2019. BCH, the other fork from the wasteful Hash Wars, is up at least 170 percent.
Bitcoin returns yearly profit all the damn time
It should be said that Bitcoin has steadily delivered positive year-on-year returns since 2013.
Delphi Digital’s data shows the median return for holding Bitcoin over 12 months sits at 160 percent, and median returns for six months are almost 47 percent.
“Similar claims can be made for shorter time horizons as well, though the percentage of time Bitcoin spends in positive territory decreases the shorter the period we examine,” said Delphi Digital.
“Logically, this makes sense as BTC is still considered to be a relatively volatile asset, but it’s worth noting to emphasize the importance of having a longer-term time horizon in this market,” it concluded.
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